Garment buying houses are one of the most important components of the vast garment and clothing industry or business, they serve as a converging point for clothing manufacturers and buyers all over the world. A garment buying house generally serves or functions as an intermediary between apparel buyers (big retailers) and the apparel manufactures or the exporting houses.

Many of the offers that retailers receive for stock lots are actually being sold by these businesses, as opposed to being offered directly by the factories. 

Basically, a garment buying house will try to get in touch with international buyers that are interested in buying certain clothing products. After they have established contact with the buyer and obtained information about the type of clothes which they are interested in, they then get in touch with the garment factories that can produce those kinds of clothes requested by the buyers. So a garment house facilitates trading between garment manufactures and buyers by creating a contract between the two parties. They procure clothes from the manufacturers and then export them to the buyers

Picture what happens when a large brand such as Calvin Klein looks for a new source for jeans, it can either send its executives all over Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, looking for jeans manufacturers, or it can work with a garment buying house that can make connections for it.

Having said that, when you are offered brand name stock lots you need to obtain a release from the brand themselves allowing you to purchase their merchandise. 

For instance, if you receive an offer for wholesale Calvin Klein dresses from a seller in India, or any country for that matter, you would need to check with the corporate offices of the brand if the dresses are authentic, and if the seller has permission to supply you with their clothing.

At times buying houses create their own unique samples, so they do not need to go to factories to collect samples, this helps them to attract customers quite easily and faster too. On the other hand, they also build showrooms to display their product and through this, they easily get the attention of the customer. In addition, they further help the buyers to effectively monitor the product processing and also create a quality assurance unit for checking the real quality of the cloths.

Every garment buying house requires the services of energetic and competent merchandiser who will supervise the placement and execution of orders; in addition, the quality control specialists are also needed to maintain the quality of the products together with administrative officials that will handle the daily operation of the business.

The major operations of a garment buying house

Garment buying houses generally offer different kinds of services to their customers, listed below are the major services rendered many garment buying houses:

• Product creation and showcasing for customers

• Selecting the right manufacturer for their customers

• Processing the orders of local suppliers

• Keeping in contact with buyers and getting their approvals of design samples.

• Communicating the buyer’s feedback and other requirements of the buyer to the manufacturers

• Provide local approved retailers

• Effective monitoring of order processing with merchants

• Monitoring the quality of goods, and making a final assessment of

• Making home buys, and occasionally outsourcing garments and trimmings for customers and sellers

• Carrying out social compliance checks in seller factories

• Logistics, Shipping, and delivery

Different departments of a garment buying house

Though a garment buying house can be easily managed by 2-3 individuals in a single room office, it can also be a very big office with different sections and hundreds of employees. A typical buying house consists of the following departments:

• The technical unit

• Design and product development unit

• Marketing and advertising unit

• Quality control unit

• Sampling, sewing and tailoring unit

• Shipping, delivery, and Documentation

• Cloth Testing Laboratory unit

• Garment sourcing and trimming unit

• Factory compliance audit unit

• And an additional unit for any other administrative duties